this post was submitted on 07 Feb 2025
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Home Assistant is open source home automation that puts local control and privacy first. Powered by a worldwide community of tinkerers and DIY enthusiasts. Perfect to run on a Raspberry Pi or a local server. Available for free at home-assistant.io

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I see a lot of posts about people who like their Zigbee and Z-Wave products. As I'm setting up the hardware in my home, I'm using Wi-Fi products because I already have Wi-Fi. I don't see much difference in price. What is the actual benefit of setting up a separate network for home devices? Is there a reason that I should consider setting up one of these networks?

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 week ago

I have Zigbee stuff. Here’s what I like about that: they bridge between each other (if they’re powered rather than battery operated) and that extends the range. The range can be great to begin with! They’re not on my network, adding confusion or load on the access points, plus they can’t phone home… all local. Then there’s smart switches, and I’m going to point out that without WiFi they can’t be controlled, but Zigbee? Sure, I can easily power cycle my router and access points with Zigbee smart plugs! In fact I have an automation to do that daily. Finally, if something is WiFi you can’t know in advance if it’s cloud based or not, and regardless of that it’s a potentially unsafe device that is connected to the internet. Low power, but botnets work with numbers rather than power.